[OT] Politics and Programming

[Richmond Mathewson]

I'm extremely sorry.

However, what I do feel is that software programming involves politics; 
whether US politics, or politics elsewhere.

Now, my country, Britain, is also doing very nicely out of the situation 
in China.
Bulgaria is flooded with Chinese goods, and so on.

I do not believe that, in the long run, this strange dependence on China 
and its
exploitable labour market is doing anyone any good at all.

Having lived in the USA, I am well aware that there is a large diversity 
of opinions
there. However, what I do see is a business model (both there and 
elsewhere) that
is unsustainable and that props up an awful regime (China).

I mentioned the story with the Halifax Bank of Scotland and my own one 
as illustrative of
how decisions made about software can have unseen and unsuspected 
effects; some of
which can be described as Political (with a big P) and some as political 
(with a small p).

The previous story about a Chinese factory, while, initially told  as an 
illustration of how
daft some ways of doing things are, struck me as going rather further 
than that. Having
been aware of how communist (and other totalitarian) societies work and 
living among
a population who are deeply scarred by that sort of society I cannot 
help but see the same
thing happening in China; but in a more frightening way. Untll the 
collapse of the Berlin
wall the western countries, led by the USA, did its level best to make 
those regimes
collapse; which they did. Now I see those same western countries 
propping up an
extremely similar regime to feed its hunger for cheap consumer goods.

I am well aware that not all Americans think that the world revolves 
around their
country, but, having written a message about the political effects of 
software
decisions, to be answered with:

   "And this relates to US politics how exactly? "

what do you expect me to reply?

Judy Perry wrote:
> So why mention it then?  I should think you'd like to get away from it.
>
> Your comment was deliberately provocative and designed to insult 
> (some) people.  Furthermore, it falls into this annoying elitist 
> mindset that sometimes seems to occur elsewhere that, being free of 
> stereotypes yourself, you still see fit to stereotype people who 
> happen to live in the U.S.
>
> Judy
>
> On Wed, 13 May 2009, Richmond Mathewson wrote:
>
>> It doesn't; but not all of us live in a world that revolves around 
>> the USA.
>>
>> Judy Perry wrote:
>>> And this relates to US politics how exactly?
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